A Growing Problem ...

Child prostitution and slavery is a growing problem worldwide. About 27 million people are bought, sold, held captive, brutalized and exploited for profit.

Trafficking is a direct assault on the basic human rights and lives of men, women and children. It involves the movement of people against their will by means of force, deceit, or coercion for the purpose of sexual or labor exploitation.

Statistics are overwhelming ...

According to recent U.S. government estimates, 18,000-50,000 persons are trafficked into the United States each year for purposes of sexual exploitation or forced labor. Victims of human trafficking are located in both rural and urban areas of the United States.

Over 100,000 children are believed to be involved in commercial sexual exploitation.

This GRIPPING NOVEL on HUMAN TRAFFICKING in AMERICA will shake the nation with awareness, inspire action, and 40% profits to freedom fighting organizations.

About the Story

No one was looking for them. They were invisible. Forgotten.

When local reporter, Kayla Barrington, crossed paths with an orphan boy on the streets of Denver, Colorado, she didn’t know the world of human trafficking hid in her city. What began as a good-natured lunch date, turned into weekly tutoring, and cautious, tender friendship. Under the facade, though, a highly networked trafficking ring was thriving at the exploitation of children all over Denver. Darkness couldn’t stay quiet forever, and when Kayla was tipped off, a desperate search began.

What started with one boy, led to a destiny of rescue, hope, and redemption. No one else knew these children were there. And she couldn’t walk away.

The Author

Tiffany Pastor is a dreamer with a relentless passion for helping people. She is a polished public speaker who encourages and casts vision with effective boldness. As a Theatre major and alumni of University of Central Florida, Tiffany utilizes the art of storytelling and dramatic dynamics to captivate her audience. After years of writing, speaking, leadership development, and graphic design, Tiffany is thrilled to bring it all together and share her first published novel, as a powerful awareness tool.

Tiffany is honored to serve in Children’s Ministry at a local church with her husband, Luke, where they invest in stronger families and the future generation. Together, they are raising their family, and reside in Colorado Springs, CO.

In 2013, the NHTRC handled 109 cases of potential human trafficking involving sales crews. 14 of these cases involved crisis situations in which the victims required immediate assistance. Based on NHTRC hotline data, cases of labor trafficking within traveling sales crews involve higher percentages of U.S. citizen victims than we are seeing in other labor trafficking industries. Additionally, in 2013, sales crews involved an almost equal number of males and females, which is also unique as compared with most other forms of labor trafficking.

Traveling sales crews typically recruit young men and young women, primarily U.S. citizens, some under the age of 18, who are looking for work and the ability to travel. Victims often have to meet daily sales quotas in order to receive a small allowance, and expenses for food and shelter are deducted from this allowance. These victims often experience physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as a means of control.

Recently, a crew member named Rob* reached out for assistance after being physically assaulted by his manager.

After speaking with an operator at the National Runaway Safeline, Rob, a 19-year-old male who had just been physically assaulted by his manager, was conferenced into the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hotline (NHTRC). The young man explained that he joined a traveling sales crew after seeing a Craigslist advertisement for a lucrative job. The crew sold magazine subscriptions and walked from door to door from 7am until 10pm every day. When the crew members complained or did not meet their daily quotas, their manager prohibited them from eating or made them sleep on the street instead of in the hotel. The NHTRC Call Specialist referred the situation to a nearby service provider who worked with Rob to coordinate shelter and transportation. In addition, the service provider offered to do outreach to the remaining crew members. The service provider helped four other young men leave the sales crew and connected with law enforcement agents who ultimately arrested the manager. Within three days, all five victims purchased bus tickets and returned to their hometowns.

The NTRC developed a webinar entitledHuman Trafficking & Traveling Sales Crewsto help law enforcement, service providers, and communities gain a better understanding of what traveling sales crews are, how they operate, and what risk factors make traveling sales crew members vulnerable to exploitation and labor trafficking. The webinar, along with several other online training tools, can be found on our website.

*Vignettes are representative of the types of calls received by the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) hotline and are meant for informational purposes only. Names, locations, and other identifying information have been changed and/or omitted to preserve the confidentiality of the people we serve.

The following content was drawn from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center monthly newsletter. For more information, please call the NHTRC at 1-888-373-7888, text the short code BeFree (233733), or visit the NHTRC at traffickingresourcecenter.org.

This publication was made possible in part through Grant Number 90ZV0102 from the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, Office of Refugee Resettlement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, Office of Refugee Resettlement, or HHS.

Griselda* and her mom were walking home from church when their world fell apart: Three men grabbed 13-year-old Griselda and gang-raped her.

In Guatemala, criminals prey on girls like Griselda because they don’t fear real consequences. Instead, impoverished families fear the reality of unchecked violence in their communities. And when a terrifying attack does come, families are too afraid to report the crime or can’t afford the lawyer they desperately need.

You can help IJM change that reality.

Watch how we relentlessly advocated for Griselda and got justice by clicking here to watch her video.

No child deserves to be raped. No parent deserves to feel powerless just because they are poor. Will you give today and help IJM protect children like Griselda in Guatemala and around the world? Got to the IJM website at http://www.ijm.org/ for more information.

Employees of a “massage clinic” were arrested for prostitution in Wheat Ridge. The news story reported that due to a local ordinance, the police do not have the authority to shut down the clinics as nuisances until a certain number of arrests have been made.

The use of the term “massage clinic” raises concern within the massage therapy community.

Both Jean and Strider reported this incident to DORA, along with the information that the women arrested for prostitution were not registered as massage therapists while purporting to be offering massage therapy services. Jean will follow-up with Deann to see what was done with this information.

Deann appreciates the information on human trafficking shared by Strider, which Roger provided to the group via email.

I did follow up with DORA regarding the Wheat Ridge arrests. They issued Cease and Desist Orders telling both prostitutes to stop acting like they are registered MTs when they are not. DORA reported that anytime they hear about unlicensed MTs through the media, their practice is to issue Cease and Desist Orders. If they continue to identify as RMT’s (or MT’s), the Attorney General goes to court on DORA’s behalf and has a judge enforce the order. If the unregistered “MTs” STILL do not stop, they are in contempt of court and can be thrown in jail. Wheat Ridge was also notified that these were unregistered individuals.

This doesn’t change the Wheat Ridge ordinance which requires 5 complaints to shut down a business. That is a local problem.

Here is an article about yesterday’s Trafficking in Children case in Colorado, sent to us by Anne Darr, FBI Victim Specialist! Note that Holiday Survivor Bags were used for all the rescued girls - thanks to Restore Innocence!

DENVER - The Colorado Attorney General’s office says 14 people were indicted on Monday, accused of running a human trafficking ring that trafficked children for sex across the state.

According to Attorney General John Suthers’ office, 22-year-old Patrick Lloyd McGowan, 20-year-old Chad Armand Gow, 20-year-old Roy Manuel Ibarra-Gonzales and 20-year-old Bryan Steven Burns oversaw the ring that involved not only the prostitution of children, but also sold methamphetamine and cocaine.

The 70-count indictment says McGowan, Gow, Ibarra-Gonzalez and Burns arranged “out calls” for their child victims through the Internet, and coerced the children by giving them drugs and threatening them.

Investigators say the four men sent children to Denver, Boulder, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and Lakewood for sex.

If convicted of trafficking children, which is the lead count in the indictment, the four could each face up to 24 years in prison and up to $1 million fines.

“Human trafficking and child prostitution are tragic crimes, from the devastating effects they have on their victims to the mere fact that the use and sale of persons persists in our world today,” Suthers said in a news release. “This indictment underlines law enforcement’s commitment to vigorously investigate and prosecute any and all cases of human trafficking we encounter.”

The Attorney General says the suspects arranged out-calls for the victims through Internet site backpage.com. Suthers says the four ringleaders set up dates for the victims and johns through the site.

At least five teenage women under the age of 18 were victims in the case, according to Suthers.

“We feel good about the indictment but we’re also very disturbed by it. These are people that are very brazen. This is easy money for them,” Suthers said.

This is the second case the Colorado Human Trafficking Task Force has prosecuted.

On January 17, the state legislature in New Jersey passed a crucial piece of legislation that will aid victims of human trafficking in New Jersey. This bill—called a “safe harbor” law—is an important step forward in the fight against slavery right here in our own country.

Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) recognizes the reality that sex trafficking occurs at truck stops throughout the U.S., and strives to educate, equip, empower and mobilize members of the trucking and travel plaza industry to combat domestic sex trafficking.

Recently our team funded by an SCTNow grant was monitoring three suspected child-sex tourists who were trying to blend in at an amusement park. While they may have assumed their bizarre interest in kids was normal and misunderstood, they were also aware that they didn’t quite fit in as three men without their families at a children’s event. They must have sensed something and tried to leave quickly, but one was detained by authorities and questioned.

Fortunately, the kids at the park remained safe and the person in question was turned over to their home country on suspicion of being a predator. However, in a feigned attempt to make himself look good he told us about a girl he had seen at a train station, and this information led to our team saving a 13 year old girl who had been trafficked in from another country and had somehow escaped her captors. Our team is now caring for this girl while investigators are on to her traffickers.

Within days our team rescued another girl at the train station, 14 years old, who had run away from home because her stepfather was renting her out, and we have now found safe housing for her.

These two stories are mild compared to others which represent 9 saves in October and November. We are very grateful to our friends in SCTNow and their faithful partners for their recent $7500 grant which has enabled us to continue our work, and we look forward to laboring together both in North America and abroad to not only save vulnerable children but to bring about an end to the ease with which predators and traffickers rob our next generation of their precious childhoods.

SCTNow is committed to funding teams in the US and abroad fighting child sex trafficking. The two children rescued are two of millions of children around the world victimized through the crime of child sex trafficking. Every child freed, and every predator off the street is one step closer to ending this global atrocity.